Orb
Orb was announced last year as this cool app designed to connect you to your home media via any portable device. If you have a laptop and you're on the road, you can connect to Orb. If you have a Pocket PC, Windows Mobile SmartPhone or any other portable phone with support for Windows Media Player or Real Player (except Palm OS devices) you can connect to Orb. Originally the service had a fee associated with it after a short trial service. As of today, the service is free. Basically the service works by installing a component on your home system and a component on your portable system and connecting between the two. The home system needs Windows XP with a 2.4GHz processor and 512MB of RAM because of the hefty media load generated in streaming content to your portable, but these are features available in the $300 range currently, so it's only a matter of time before most every PC meets the required specs. If you want access to live TV, you also need a tuner card installed so Orb can transcode the TV direct to your phone or laptop from anywhere. This isn't just a one way funnel though. If you have a camera phone you can put your pictures back to your home system using the Orb interface without needing to mail them as an attachment. If you like the idea of having access to your music and movies from anywhere you can get broadband access, give Orb a try. You do need to register for access, which is a requirement to make the service work properly. [Windows XP $0.00]